Connecting people with nature

Craig Johnson might not be much for talking about himself, but he can tell all kinds of stories about the Morton Arboretum and the plants that grow there.

Johnson, the arboretum's director of education and information services, is retiring Dec. 31 after a three-decades association with the 1,700-acre outdoor museum in Lisle.

He still marvels at its beauty and splendor during all four seasons of the year.

"I sneak out on the grounds every day for a nice long walk or, on occasion, to teach a class or lead a group," he said.

Johnson started at the arboretum in the late 1970s as a prairie volunteer and a part-time staff person at the information desk and school guide. Since going full-time in 1981, he's been the arboretum's first development officer, education group administrator, director of education and director of external affairs before assuming his current position.

"I like to think I grew with the arboretum in the sense of working on the arboretum's growing edge," he said.

When Johnson came to the arboretum, it occupied the same land it does today but far fewer people were acquainted with it. The staff focused on the collections, research and education, but didn't put much emphasis on reaching out to the public.

That has changed dramatically in recent years with an expansion of programming that includes concerts, banquet meals and theater hikes, and the addition of a new Visitor Center, Maze Garden and Children's Garden.

Johnson applauds the changes. Ever the teacher, he said the popular Children's Garden serves as a bridge to give kids and parents confidence they can enter the natural world that initially may seem alien to them.

"We think of our building materials (as) coming from Home Depot and our food coming from the grocery store," he said. "These, in fact, are only way stations. They come from nature."

Johnson knows most visitors haven't had the experience he had as a child growing up in Wheaton with a remnant of the prairie to visit and surrounding woodlands to explore. The arboretum was part of his life, too, even then.

"The arboretum was a destination for my family throughout my growing up," said Johnson, who still makes his home in Wheaton.

As a child, Johnson took classes taught by famed naturalist May Watts, who started the arboretum's education program in the 1940s. On reaching adulthood, he trained as a teacher, earned a degree at an Episcopal seminary and did parish work before returning to work at the arboretum in his 30s.

He's not found a reason to leave since then.

"The arboretum was never to me a job that was done. It was a work I was always deeply engaged with," he said. "There was always so much more to do and it was always so interesting and compelling that the thought of putting it down and doing something else for the next 10 years didn't seem at all an attractive option."

Johnson said some of his best memories come from classes he has taught - opening people's eyes to the natural world around them. His specialty has been the flora of northern Illinois.

He tells students about the white oaks that supplied most of the wood for the barns, homes and plank roads that the settlers built. He describes how settlers used every part of the shagbark hickory - from the bark and green wood for flavoring and preserving wood to the nuts for food to the tree's tightly grained wood for making tools and heating drafty cabins.

"We've forgotten these tree stories," Johnson said.

It's Johnson's own enduring wonder at nature that makes him such an effective teacher, said Jan Little, assistant director of education at the arboretum.

"He understands the audience in a way that someone who has had a lot of training as a scientist may not," Little said. "He brings that incredible excitement of figuring out something about the world."

Cindy Crosby of Glen Ellyn attributes her appreciation of the prairie to Johnson. A volunteer docent, Crosby first became acquainted with Johnson when he oversaw the work she and other volunteers did on the Schulenberg Prairie. After they finished their work, Johnson would take them on educational walks, pointing on prairie plants and telling them anecdotes about the arboretum, she said.

"I feel Craig was a real mentor to me as a prairie volunteer," she said. "I really caught his passion for the prairie."

Crosby was inspired enough to write "By Willoway Brook: Exploring the Landscape of Prayer," a book about the Schulenberg Prairie that sells at the Arboretum Store. Johnson took time to read it to ensure its accuracy, she said.

"He's so gracious and so knowledgeable. I can't imagine the arboretum without him," she said.

Johnson said he has no plans to leave the arboretum entirely. He'll still be a frequent hiker, an interested onlooker and perhaps a volunteer, he said.

He also plans to pursue teaching opportunities that allow him to continue to help people discover the natural world and values of Western culture. Along with that, Johnson plans to reacquaint himself with classical languages of Rome, Greece and the Renaissance that he studied years ago.

Johnson said he'll miss his colleagues at the arboretum, but, no doubt, he'll continue to share a kinship with them.

"There's a sense of shared values for a greener, healthier, more beautiful world," he said. "I've learned so much from them."